Alfa Jafo has spent the last few months working in the kitchen at a restaurant in the historic city of Agadez in Niger, a launchpad for irregular migration in the Sahel. Asked if the COVID-19 pandemic has killed his dream of going to Europe, Jafo looks genuinely puzzled and says 'No'.

The European Digital Media Observatory, which aims to analyse disinformation, was launched on Monday (1 June) in Florence. Funded by the EU, it brings together researchers and experts in media literacy. EURACTIV Italy reports.

Most analysts expect the European Central Bank on Thursday (4 June) to beef up its emergency bond-buying scheme with hundreds of billions of euros to weather the coronavirus pandemic, providing governments with the breathing space to decide their own response.

Cities have been hit the hardest by the corona pandemic. Dario Nardella, the mayor of Florence, declares a state of social and economic emergency for his city and many others across Europe. And he argues that cities are key for a sustainable recovery in Europe.

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted maintenance at oil and gas projects and refineries from Russia’s Far East to the coast of Canada, storing up problems for an industry already reeling from slumping prices, analysts say.

More and more migrants are crossing, Europe is closing its ports and no humanitarian ships are carrying out rescues. As the coronavirus pandemic dominates headlines, activists fear the Mediterranean is the scene of an overlooked "tragedy".

The European People's Party group called on Wednesday (13 May) for an EU law to prevent oligarchs and land-grabbers drawing on EU subsidies at the expense of small and medium-sized farming businesses. The practice is widespread in countries in Eastern Europe and Italy.

A standoff between Italy's ruling parties on the regularisation of illegal migrants working as agricultural labourers is slowing down the adoption of the latest aid package aimed at supporting families and companies during the lockdown.

Italy's government is readying new measures to support companies struggling due to the coronavirus crisis, including tax incentives and hybrid bonds, and aims to access the European Recovery Fund in the second half of the year, Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said on Sunday (10 May).

The European Commission on Thursday (7 May) proposed scrapping the usual conditions for countries using the eurozone’s bailout fund as they try to revive their economies hit by the coronavirus epidemic. The proposal may make the fund more palatable for...

Russia’s aid operation to Italy over the Covid-19 crisis was named “From Russia with Love”, after a James Bond movie. Ironically, what was assumed to be a public relations stunt looks more like espionage, according to sources quoted by EURACTIV Bulgaria.

Over 4 million Italians are going back to work on Monday (4 May) amid continued uncertainty over which activities are allowed and which ones are forbidden in the so-called 'phase two' of Italy's fight against the pandemic.

One board says: "You do the shopping for your neighbours: throw the dice again”. Another orders: “You go out without a face mask: go back to the previous square”. Those are some of the rules of a new, educational cum fun, ‘coronavirus board game’ designed for kids in Italy.

Rating agency Fitch cut Italy's credit rating to "BBB-minus" on Tuesday (28 April), just one notch above junk, saying the downgrade reflects the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the euro zone's third largest economy.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, health and financial policies, in particular, have increasingly become the focus of the EU's solidarity debate. But what about EU asylum and refugee policy? EURACTIV Germany reports.

Italy is bracing for a major financial blow from the COVID-19 crisis. The government is now planning a budget deficit of 10.4% of gross domestic product this year and sees the public debt rising to 155.7% of GDP, according to a draft forecasting document.

The "full firepower" of the European Union will be needed to overcome the historic shock of the coronavirus crisis, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told German media Sunday (19 April), repeating calls to pool European debt.

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